Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1887-09-09

Ine HuunbG Oh your lWtlllO lllCNs
All this unworthy gush, it is needless to
say, is purely apocryphal Nothing of the
kind occurred 1t is an afterthought, mere
rhetorical bombast, gotten up to serve the
purpose of baseless adulation. 1t is SIAN
der on Mr.. Everett, an injustice to Mr.
Lincoln, and Justification of history. Mr.
Everett could not have used the words attrib-
uted to him in the face of his openly eX-
pressed condemnation of Mr.. Lincoln
speech, without subjccting himself to the
Just charge of being toady and hypo-
critic. and he was neither the one nor the
other.
As IA matter of fact Mr.. Lincoln's great
Gettysburg speech fell ON the vast audience
like wet blanket At that time his reputa
ton was confesscdly on the wane. The
politicians of the country those of his own
party together with large part of the press,
were casting about for an available can
didate to he his successor. while a great ma
jority of the poole were for him.
state it as a fact, and without fear of
contradiction, that this famous Gettysburgh
speech was not received or commented upon,
with anything like hearty favor, 10y the
people. the politicians, or the press of the
United States, until after the death of its
author. Its marvellous perfection, its in
| trinsc excellence as masterpiece of En-
glish composition seems to have escaped the
scrutiny of the most scholarly critics and the
wisest heads of that day, ON this side of the
Atlantic. That discovery was made, we
must regretfully say, by distinguished
writers on the other side. The London
Spectator, the Saturday Review the Edin-
burgh Review, and other European journ-
ais were the first to discover, or at least 70
proclaim the classical merits of the Gettys
! burg speech. 1t was then that we began to
realize that it was indeed masterpiece and
it then dawned upon many mi,ds that we
had entertained an angel unawares who had
left US unappreciated.. T.
The tragic death of Mr.. Lincoln brought
n more fearful panic to his former traducers
than to his friends. The latter's legacy
was deep sorrow, mourning and regret; the
former were left to the humiliating neces-
sity of a change of base to place themselves
en- rapport with the millions who mourned
the loss of their greatest patriot and states
man. In no country, and i'll no age of the
world, has the death of any man caused an
outpouring of sorrow so mveral Every
nation of the earth felt and expressed its
sense of the loss to progressive civilization
and popular government In his life and
death thoughtful men. in all lands. found
an inspiring theme England's greatest
thinker, John Stuart Mill, pronounced him
1.-THE greatest citizen, who has afforded "A
noble example of the qualities hetitting the
first magistrate of a free people. The Lon
don Times declared that the news of his
death would be received throughout Europe
with sorrow as sincere and profound as it
awoke in the United States, and that - En-
glishmen had learned to respect a man who
I.l. Al e
The London Spectator spoke of him Ger
tainly the best if not the ablest man ruling
over any country in the civilized world. -
For using, in his Gettysburg speech, the
celebrated phrase ''the government of the
people, by the people, and for the people,
shall not perish from the earth Mr.. Lin
coin has been subjected to brutal criticism
AS well as the most groundless flattery.
Some have been base enough to insinuate
against that great and sincere man the
crime of wilful plagiarism, others have as
Cribed to him the honor of originating the
phrase entire. There is in justice to him III
either view of the case. | personally know
that Mr., Lincoln made no pretense of origi-
nality in the matter, nor was he conscious
of having appropriated the thought FOR the
words of any other man. If heE be subject
to the charge of plagiarism, so is the great
Webster who used substantially the same
phrase in his celebrated reply to Hayne
He may have acquired the peculiar form OF
expression, the thought itself being as old II:
the republican idea of government, by the
process known as unconscious appropriation
Certain it is that neither Webster nor Lin
coin originated the phrase. Let us see how
the case stands; In the preface to the ole
Wickliiie Bible published a. d. 1924. is the
following declaration: This Bible is for thu
government of the people, by the people, anC
for the people, " which language is identica
with that employed by Mr.. Lincoln in hi
Gettysburg speech. In an address before
the New England Anti-Slavery convention
in Boston, May 30, 1860 Theodore Parker
defined democracy as "a government of al
the people, by all the people, for all thu
people, otfcourse. - Substantially the SAM
;; phrase was used. by Judge Joel Parker il
the Massachusetts constitutional convention
in 1858. A distinguished diplomat has ac
quainted me with the singular fact tina
almost the identical phrase employed b.
Mr. Lincoln was used in another language
, by person "whose existence even was no
probably known to Mr. Webster tn
Parkers, or Mr.. Lincoln, and who certainl,
did not borrow it from them" On pag
81 of work entitled 'Gaschichte der
Schweigerischen Regeneration Won, 1920 bi
1Si3, Won p. Feddersen. appears an &C
count of a public meeting held at Often
Switzerland, in May, 1920. On that occasion
a speaker named Schinz used the following
language: IAN the governments of Switzer
land referring to the cantons) must nc
!, knowledge that they are simply from tn
a people, by the people, and for the people.
These extracts are enough to show tina
no American statesman or writer can la
\ claim to the origin or authorship of til
phrase in question. No friend of Mr. Lin
, coin will pretend that it is the coinage G
: his fertile brain. As a phrase of singula
. compactness and force, it was simply en-
: ployed by him, legitimately and properly
Il as "A fitting conclusion to an address whic
will live as a model of classic oratory Will
, free government shall continue to be know
u and revered among men.
WARD. II LAMoN.
y Give them A Chance!